The Abnormal Journey
by Persona Arts
Summary: Enter the vast world if brave frontier and the journey of a summoner and his team as they go into Ishgria.


**Chapter 1: Awful Beginnings**

The black haired boy sighed as he dropped his head on the table in the raid house. He's been sitting there since five and it's now already seven thirty. The whole party should've been here by now. He let out a frustrated groan and looked up at the glass that was in front of him. Across the table was a woman with green hair with parts of it braided. She sat beside a hat what looked like the top half of some kind of wolf. She gave him a concerned look and leaned back in her chair.

"So Kazato, when is the rest of the team supposed to show up?" she asked sounding more like she was confused rather than annoyed unlike the other one at the table. He sits back up and looks at his short sword and and dagger that were on the table to the left of him, then looked back at his watch. He then looked at the raid house's entrance and saw Noah and Elise walk in. He turned around and shrugged. He honestly didn't know where two of them were but one of them should've informed him whether or not he was going to be late. He takes another drink from his glass and continued to wait. The green haired woman look at him concerned. "Are they always late?".

"Not this late. Usually he's only about fifteen minutes late. The other two however..."

"There are the same people that have gotten you into really bad situations and almost killed you, correct?"

"Yes… They show up even later,"

"I don't understand why you're always teamed up with these people. Or at least those two,"

"Yeah I don't know either. I keep asking to not be teamed up with them but I get the same answer."

"And that is…?"

"It is always, "You are all still young in the summoner's hall and the weakest should stay with the weakest until they grow strong." That type of bullshit. Since we're the earliest ones to put into raid class six, which mind you there are not many people in this raid class, I'm stuck with them for a long time until either he gets fed up with my complaining or more people get ranked up to be at six. Hopefully soon that happens,"

"The fact that you said there are not a lot in in raid class six further questions why those two are in the class that you are in,"

"Well… He's tough but he's also very over confident in what he does. Often times leading to me, as the leader, saving his ass. The other..." Kazato sat back in his chair and gave a pondering look. "Yeah why is she in raid class six? She can barely do solo missions and even then they don't usually go very well by the records that I've read."

"Good healing support?"

"If that was the case she'd still be in five. She'd just be able to go on RC6 missions at the request of the people doing it. But she has done solo RC6 missions so that's not true,"

"Does she even fight well?"

"She doesn't try so I don't know,"

"Well hopefully they can do this. This is the final mission to take care of that damn sand storm,"

"The way I set it up, I doubt that they can screw this up,"

"When this is over, do you mind if I..." Kazato raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Oh? Does Avani of the hunter's clan Rih'alnase, have something to say?" She begins to twist a part of her hair as he kept teasing her. He knew what she wanted to do. It was really hard to see at first but she was shy about it as well.

"Well I just wanted to..."

"You wanna come over? Ryujin has nothing to do and you could probably catch up with him if you want to,"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I know you want to. Plus I can easily tell you that-"

"Hey!" A voice came from behind him saying. Kazato turned around and looked at a green haired person that looked out of breath. Kazato sighed and gave him a disappointed look.

"Dude, it's seven thirty. What the hell were you doing that took so long?"

"I was doing my arena matches. I gotta qualify for the tournament soon or else I won't be able to make it. Remember we're going on the Ishgria expedition if a week. I don't have that much time left,"

"And doing that too two and a half hours?! How far behind are you?"

"Don't worry about that. Just understand that I am here right now,"

"What the hell man?! Why are you always so damn lazy?!"

"Well..." He scratches his head and looks to light lavender haired girl that wore a black cloak. She herself was more fixated on the fact that Avani was on the other side of the table. "Zenia looks interested in her hat," Zenia continues to look at Avani's hat. It wasn't soon after that she walked over and picked it up to get a closer look. Both Kazato and Ryujin looked at each other and shrugged. "Enough about my laziness. Where is the couple? They had jack shit to do,"

"Well the one who is gonna be an ass about the raid is probably with the other. Depending on if we're waiting longer, we might just go with the four of us,"

"Won't that be harder? We kinda need them to take care of Nal Dala. I don't really want to do the mission with them but..."

"Yeah I know. I can't stand how they treat me in raid class six. Just because I'm new doesn't mean I'm weak," Kazato sighs. He turns around and sees Zenia gently stroking the hat on the table while Avani is just looking at her with a confused and happy look.

"Those two seem to be getting along just fine,"

"Yeah. I'm still worried about them showing up. The longer we wait the closer the sand storm will get. Dammit. Where's Vern when you need her?"

"You know good and well she never gets off days. So let her have this one. Plus she can't go on the Ishgria raid due to them. Plus, she's been working her ass of for the past week. Let her take a break," Kazato nodded and turned around to the map that had the whole plan laid out with the positions that everybody was going to be. Ryujin sits down beside him and looks at the map as well. "So what's the game plan this time?"

"I would rather explain it once. Due to the other two that are in the group, he's gonna have something to say if I don't let him take on the strongest monster,"

"Is he still not taking it on?"

"I can't let him. He's reckless. If he fucks up, that will get yelled at by Owen again. This is the last raid before the Ishgria expedition. This has to be done well,"

"You got that right. Not only that, I'm tired of working with them. They were cool back then, but now..."

"If he rants to me again about how the raid could've gone better if he was taking on the main enemy, I'm gonna hurt him," Avani clears her throat and puts her hat on top of Zenia's head.

"If I may enter the conversation, can't you two do this by yourselves? You guys are more than capable of beating both of the demons by yourselves. The only one that we are going to have to take care of all together is Kamekichi,"

"That would be the case, however, Owen wants the city to not be destroyed so I need a full party to be able to split up and then converge on Kamekichi. If we had all of the time in the world, I'd do this with me Ryujin,"

"I see. You've planned for the worst I see,"

"Yeah. That's why I wanted Ryujin to be here sooner," Kaz laid back in the seat and looked at his empty glass. "I'm gonna go get some water. You two keep each other company. Call me over when they get here," As he got up, Avani got up and grabbed his shirt.

"Uhh… D-don't you think that we should go over-" Her topic was quickly shut down by a wink at her. He continued to walk towards the bar to go get a drink. When he sat down he was then immediately called back.

"Hey! Let's get this moving along!" Someone says. The overly impatient tone of the voice made him angry. As he turned around, he saw a man with short, brown hair and a greatsword standing beside a woman holding a wand with platinum hair. His eye twitched when he looked at the clock and it said 7:45.

"You're finally here," Kazato tried to look as if he wasn't phased by the obvious issue at hand, but the way he almost cracked a glass cup with his bare hands almost gave it away. "Before we go, we need to go over the plan. I had to make changes according to the times that we all showed up at. Other than that, it didn't really change much,"

"Always thinking ahead, I see. That's Kaz for you," Ryujin added.

"I only have this ability because you guys are always late. By that logic, I'd call it a blessing in disguise," Kaz rolled his eyes as he pulled a map from his bag. Form there was shown a map that contained an averagely sized city and the rest desert area."Since we're not going to be able to take the first two out like I wanted, we're going to have to split up. We're still going to have time to regroup to take down the main target, but will all have to fall in once our secondary targets are beaten,"

"Correct me if I'm wrong. Are targets are Nalda Delia, Yugreia and Kamekichi, right?"

"Yeah. Nalda Delia has been spotted in the city and Yugreia has been spotted farther out in the desert. Owen ordered me to have the city take as little damage as possible. But if destruction happens under normal reasons, it can be overlooked,"

"Yeah… "Normal Reasons" he says..."

"Basicly don't destroy the city. So here's how I have it split up: The people taking on Yugeria will be Avani, Ryujin, and me. Deus and Senri, Deal with Nalda Delia and then follow up on Yugeria. Once the sandstorm gets too close, if Yugeria hasn't gone down, Me and Avani will go in for Kamekichi. After both targets are down, we all attack Kamekichi." Kaz rolls up the map and puts it back in his bag.

"So basic divide and conquer. Sorta… I'm cool with-"

"Hold on!" Deus interrupts. Hearing his voice only made him angrier. Kaz's eye twitched as he gritted his teeth and responded with, "What?" in the nicest voice that he could muster.

"Why the hell am I taking on the weakest demon?! I'll crush Yugeria and you know it!,"

"No you won't. All that you will do is get yourself in a bad situation. Like when he almost drowned you last time. Plus, you're late as hell. How am I going to change the plan now?"

"You take on Nalda Delia and Yugeria. Me and Senri will take on Kamekichi. Simple," Kaz sighs in annoyance. He obviously wasn't paying attention to when he was gonna show up.

"I'm not dealing with this. This is the last raid before the Ishgria expedition and it needs to be done right. So there's no way in hell that I'm going to let you take care of the hardest part,"

"But you-" Avani stabbed her chainblade into the table grabbing everyone's attention.

"Kazato is right," She speaks with an annoyed tone. "We're wasting time. His plan is sound seeing that this is the latest that we've been,"

"With all due respect, you're just the client. So-" Deus tries to get into her face as he's talking but a swift placement of her blade to his neck caused him to reel back.

"And as the client, we are going with Kaz's plan. His abilities are far better than yours. You might beat him in overall strength, but is combat skills and battle tactics are ten times better. Your reckless attitude will only get you killed," Deus backs up from the blade and looks slightly offended as she called him reckless.

"How am I-" Deus's question was cut off by the loud clearing of Kaz's throat and him casually mentioning Shusui. After that, he was silent.

"Okay so now that we're done. Let's go,"

 _One rather quiet trip later._

Kaz sighed in relief as the team split off. He kicked the sand and sat down on top of a rock that was to his right. It wasn't really like he wasn't used to it. It was more because he was working his ass off so that he could go on this expedition. He took a deep breath again and started looking at his watch. 8:30 and there was no sign of Yugeria. He saw that Nalda Delia was already raising havoc on the city. He shrugged and continued to wait.

"The sandstorm is supposed to be here in about thirty minutes right?" Ryujin asked.

"Yeah, but that's for when it shown up at this exact location where we are now. The plan was for all of us to intercept it, but..."

"Yeah I got you. Still I don't understand why we still have to raid with those two. Theat like a good 70 percent of our problems,"

"Owen likes to give me a hard time. I don't know why..."

"This seems more like punishment to me. I know for a fact that there are more than just those two on the lower part of RC6,"

"Apparently not. Therefore I'm stuck with Senri the healer. The one who opens her mouth and she annoys the fuck out of me. And don't forget her boyfriend, Deus. That damn showout. I swear if I meet him in the summoner tournament, I'm going to make him regret it."

"We got a long ways away before that. Let's focus on this for now,"

"Right. Zenia, can you sense any sighting of Yugeria anywhere?" She shook her head.

"Nadal Delia is interfering with the reading due to him being extremely close," She explains. "They will have to defeat that demon before I can try to track Yugreia," Kaz took a deep whiff of the air. He smelled the smell of salt water. He's close. Way too close. Kaz then jumped off of the rock and pulled out his sword and knife.

"Everybody! Get ready! He's coming!" As he said that, a wave of water came by and rushed towards their direction. They all dodged to the left and right as they narrowly avoided the tidal wave. Avani chuckled and adjusted her hat.

"You've got good instincts Kaz. As always," She compliments. Kaz regains his balance and looks at the aquatic fire god.

"Don't thank me just yet. We got ten minutes. After that we break off. Got it?"

"Right! Ryujin, Zenia! You heard that?"

"Loud and clear! I got tired of waiting! Let's get started!"

Yugreia's Roar was heard near the city. When deus heard it, it only caused him to be annoyed and distracted. It was that same distraction that almost got him hit by a black stake and in a really bad position. Luckily, Senri was there to block the incoming attacks. Deus looked at him as it tried to prepare another stake to throw.

"This is pissing me off! This isn't worth my time!" He placed his claymore into the ground and the ground under him begins to shake. "Earth Divider!" As he pulled the ground from under him, Nadal Delia throws the stake. The lifted earth blocks the stake Deus advances forward. He looks at his right arm and dashes towards it. He dodges a punch that Nadal Delia throws with his left arm and cuts his right arm off with one hard slash.

"I'll send you off to hell soon. Just wait-" Due to his cockieness, he completly lost track of where the left arm was and gets sent flying towards the nearest building. If it wasn't for Senri teleporting him near her, he would be in a way worse position. Worse than he would admit. Though he knew what kind of situation that she just saved him from, he only grunted and said, "I didn't need your help," like she expected him to say. She only shrugged and watched Nadal Delia writhe in pain after losing an arm. Deus only got more annoyed at how weak that his opponent was. "Goddammit!" he yelled. "Why am I of all people wasting time with this piece of shit?!" It only pissed him off more as it keeled over. "You know what? Fuck it. I'm not dealing with this," He places his hand in the middle of his claymore and begins to channel energy to it.

"Sage Art: Deep Wood Imprisonment," A series of trees began to coil around Nadal Delia until he was restrained and covered in forest. After that was taken care of, Deus looked back towards the sandstorm that was getting closer towards the other part of the team.

"It's getting too close. Senri, we're heading in,"

"The sandstorm?! But Kaz said-"

"Screw what Kaz said! He's not going to make it in time! We'll take it on and then clean up later," Senri couldn't really argue with him long seeing as how he already was headed that way.

"Nether Judgement," A chunk of water(?) that was heading towards Ryujin. Was swallowed into a void. He looks at her and gives him a quick smile and continues to fight alongside his team. Kazato lands on a sand dune and looks where the sandstorm. It's close enough now to go in. He signals Avani and calls Ryujin.

"Hey! The sandstorm's close! Me and Avani are heading- WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"What is it?!"

"Deus and Senri are heading straight in! I thought I told them not to do that!" Avani even groaned.

"Godammit!" She yells. It's not lake her to get this angry at much, but Kazato could tell that Deus had gotten on her last nerve. "It's always him too! I'm gonna-" Kazato places his hand over her shoulder and begins to speak much more calmly.

"Let's just go. Hopefully they aren't in too much danger," Avani gave him the "you're too optimistic look" after he finished that statement. "You're right. We should hurry. Ryujin, You can handle this right?!" A quick nod let them both know to make a quick dash towards the sandstorm. As the both of them neared the sandstorm, Avani launched herself towards the top of the sandstorm. Kazato put on protective goggles and dashes in. It didn't take him long to spot a severely wounded Deus and Senri trying to heal him, but it still didn't make him care much about how bad he was hurt. He looked at Kamekichi that was about to send another set of needles towards them. In onder to defend them both he casted an ice barrier so that most of the needles were blocked. Kazato turned around and gave both of them a menacing glare. He teleported all three of them out of the sandstorm and said, "When I make a plan, FOLLOW IT!" before leaving them to go back into the sandstorm. Looking into the sandstorm, he not only sees Avani getting knocked back into sand, he sensed not only Kamekichi, but another demon. The black stake that was launched at him only confirmed what demon was inside the sandstorm with him.

"Avani! You okay?" he asks. Probably a stupid question now that he thinks about it.

"Okay? Yes. Angrier? Hell yes!" He really couldn't blame her. They are a reason why this whole raid is going the way that it is. He channels his energy into his sword and strikes both of them. Kamekichi was unfazed however Nadal Delia was restrained by light made bindings.

"Focus Nadal! He's weaker!" Both Kazato and Avani jumped toward the demon Nadal and struck it with their blades.

"Black fire: Corrosion!" A black flame consumed Nadal Delia. After a while, his trace was gone. Now the only thing inside of the sandstorm was Kamekichi.

"Avani now!" Avani jumps again into the air and stabs her chain blades in a crossed formation.

"Khabayth Al'iiesar!" As she pulls her swords from the ground the wind picks up the demon. As the demon is in the air, Kazato charges another attack with his sword.

"Wind Art: Piercing Burst!" While lunging his sword towards the demon, his sword sent out a wind that pierced through Kamekichi. The next moment, the demon begun to be torn apart by wind. When the wind stopped both the demon and the sandstorm were nowhere to be found. Kazato shrugged and looked toward Avani. She gave him a nod of approval as she came down from the air. "You alright? No injuries too serious?" He asks as he sheathes his weapons. Avani puts her weapons on her back and brushes her shoulders and arms.

"Just a few bruises. I should be more worried about you. Looks like you got cut up preety bad by Kamekichi,"

"I look better than that fucker on the ground. I think I'd look better if he didn't go and try and be a show out like he always is,"

"True. It's over now though. Let's go back you your place now. We all deserve to rest,"

 _Back in grand gaia._

The second he got home, he was called to the summoner's hall. The moment he stepped through the door, he first got a punch thrown at him (which he dodged), and also a big scolding about how the city was destroyed. Not even Kazato realized that it was destroyed until he realized that Nadal Delia was in the sandstorm with him during the fight. He had to have caused some damage getting there. He sighed as Owen continued to yell at an annoying volume. He stopped paying attention because it was his classic, "A leader takes responsibility and this always happens when you take charge." He ends with the, "What do you have to say for yourself?" and then Kazato sighs.

"Lord Owen, if I may, Deus was being-"

"You ALWAYS blame Deus! He is not the problem, you are!"

"I gave him specific orders and he still-"

"Obviously if he didn't follow them, it's because you made a bad decision,"

"All I told him to take care of one-"

"ENOUGH!" Owen roars. It was obvious now that any of the obvious reasoning wasn't going to get through him. "Due to your constant failures, you're not going on the Ishgria expedition,"

"You can't be serious! My raids would be going fine if Deus-"

"Enough with your excuses. Get out of my sight,"

"But-"

"LEAVE!"

It was already dark out by the time both Ryujin and Kazato left the summoner's hall. That didn't stop him from being pissed on the way home. It wasn't the first time that he got yelled at Owen, but this is probably the worst thing that Owen has punished him with.

"Well on the bright side, you have a free month and a half. Or… Something like that,"

"Normally that would help, but this time... I could've NOT done half of the raids I was doing and be fine! I busted my ass to go in this expedition only to be denied at the last minute because what? One guy is being a jackass!? His piece of shit healer won't even speak up to tell him how stupid his actions are?! God, both of them piss me off so damn much!" It wasn't the best thing to do at night where people are trying to sleep but it wasn't like he really cared.

"Uhh… This a bad time for this?"A voice from behind Kazato said. Looking back, he spotted a guy with black and white hair with both an axe and a sword behind his back.

"Coursam? No. I'm just pissed off," he says with a sigh.

"Is that sarcasm or are you actually telling me the truth?"

"If you keep talking like you don't know, then I'll actually get pissed," Coursam puts his arms up as if he's surrendering.

"Alright, alright. I'll stop. Anyway, Avani's at your place right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I wanted to come and say hi. Cool if we both come over?" When he said the word "we", he groaned. The sudden chill in the air was a dead giveaway.

"Oh goddammit- Amagi! Stop doing that!" From what appeared that was only a few steps from him was a woman with long black hair. She looked at him with her stoic face as she stepped back from Kazato. "I'm glad that you're stealth magic has gotten better and all, but that's seriously getting old,"

"I'm just making sure that your senses are sharp,"

"I'm RC6. Don't worry about me. Worry about your boyfriend and your team if you want somthing to worry about other than yourself," She looked away from him and put on a bush after that statement.

"W-well seeing as you're a lazy person..."

"At least gather your composure before you try to play the blame game," Coursam cleared his throat to try to get the group's attention.

"In any case, we should start heading over before it gets dark," They all nodded and continued on their way. The rest of the way there, Coursam talked about their raid today. Surprisingly, theirs went not as great as they thought. The other half of the raid team for them got heavily injured halfway through. "So long story short, we had to fight with 3 people. I honestly don't know how you do it,"

"It becomes easier. If you want to finish raids quicker, you're going to have to divide and conquer,"

"True. Kinda surprised that your raids go bad with how you go about it,"

"When your team doesn't follow orders, someone is bound to get hurt..."

"Oh. Is that what went down this time as well?"

"Not only that, but I got taken out of the Isgria raid,"

"What?! Weren't you working this whole week for it?!"

"Yeah. Several fuck ups by one man caused me to be screwed out of a mission that I _wanted_ to go on," Kazato steps in front of his door and looks at the knob. He noticed that it was unlocked. His senses heighten. Three bodies. All of them look like they were hiding in his house. "Wait what the hell? Why are there people in my house?" As he opens the door, it was completely dark. "Okey, enough. Turn the lights on and I might let you live," The threat was met with a sudden turn on of the lights and him spotting a average sized birthday cake. Avani, Halie, and a black haired girl popped out of their hiding spots and yelled, "Happy birthday, Kaz!" while they were throwing confetti. He scratched his head and looks at the date. May 27th. They got it right. He still looks with a confused look.

"Wait… How did you-" He begins to ask.

"We found your spare key," Avani said casually.

"Hey, who cares about that?! It's my good friend's birthday!" Coursam points out.

"It's my adorable brother birthday~ We need to celebrate to the fullest!" Hailie's choice of words made him groan.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not related to you! Anyway…." The black haired girl lit the candles on the birthday cake and claps her hands together.

"You're always so mean to me! Be nice to your-" A swift chop to the head stopped her little rant.

"Okey, now that I shut her up, Akita, my spare key," He turns to the other black haired woman as she walks over to give him his key. After he gets his key back he finally relaxed.

"Okey, _now_ we can party," He reached for the knife that was on the side of the table. "Guess today wasn't all bad,"

As it got closer to midnight, Hailie left to go back and take care of Korzan. The rest stayed over. By midnight, the whole gang were just chatting around. Kaz at this time was outside. He wasn't as upset at the event anymore, he was more annoyed about the time that he wasted. It's not often that he wants to actively go on missions. Plus this one was a big one. He let out a sigh as he took a sip of water.

"You're still upset?" Avani comes from behind and sits beside him. He always thought it was weird to look at her without her wolf hat, but he's very used to it at this point. He laid back in the grass and sighed again.

"Yeah. Not really about the consequence, more about the wasted time. I could've been training for the summoner tournament and doing other things that I like to do. But of course, I worked hard to prove that I can work hard and lead a group of people on a Raid. Then..."

"You've made your point. Well if it makes you feel any better, I think you did your best,"

"Apparently best isn't really good enough, and apparently being stuck with shitty teammates doesn't really help my case. Like I said, The whole thing would've been perfectly fine, godammit..." His senses begin to flare up again. He lets out another irritated groan.

"I thought it was good to time the raid according to the sandstorm. It was well planned towards the surroundings," He sits back up and stretches his arms. He grabs the air to his right. He finds that the air to his right is not air, but rather the feeling of a shirt. Amagi again appears out of nowhere. That stoic look only annoyed him even more.

"Can you let go of me?" She flatly speaks.

"Can you stop sneaking up on me like that?! It's annoying because you can't hide your presence from we well," He lets go of her and she dusts herself off.

"To be fair, you're the only one that does notice,"

"Then stop trying to do it around me! Why are you here anyway? Weren't you talking to Coursam?"

"He went to bed along with Akita. Now I'm bored,"

"A-anyway-" Avani cuts in. "Like I was saying, you did show good leadership,"

"Thanks, I guess..."

"Was it really that bad? I remember the overall story but was him going " Amagi asks. Kaz raised an eyebrow at her in surprise.

"You? Showing concern? That's a first,"

"I do show concern. Just not often for you,"

"And you're trying to sneak up on me constantly? I don't understand your logic,"

"Just because I'm trying to test your abilities doesn't mean that I care for you,"

"Right… Right… That's why you train with Coursam and use the same excuse on him, right?"

"Answer the question,"

"The city was destroyed and I was covered in cuts. Hence why I'm patched up,"

"Ah..."

"Yeah. Well at least I don't have to do a lot for the next 2-3 months. One raid every two weeks and training for the summoner tournament. I'll be taking it easy for a long time," He chuckles and stands up.

"I'm heading back inside. You two should too," Both of them nodded and followed him back. Once back in his home and in his room, he spots Hailie's sword with a note on it.

 _My birthday gift from me and Korzan. It will help you with your magic. Happy birthday, lovely little brother~_

 _-Hailie_

He only groans but does smile. He's always liked the look of her sword and how it was affected by magic. "I'll get a feel of it later. I want sleep," He lays down on his bad and closes his eyes. Now he was happy that he wouldn't have to wake up early tomorrow.


End file.
